Platform for International Student Mobility

About PIM

PIM offers higher education institutions (HEI)  and students a platform for inter*national student mobility. Funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research, the platform is being developed as a cooperation between several higher education institutions.

An important PIM goal is to provide HEIs with  practical solutions for implementing the requirements of the Law for Digital Access (Onlinezugangsgesetz, OZG) and of the Erasmus Chart for Higher Education (ECHE).

PIM is built on EU standards, main ones being EMREX/ELMO for course achievements and EDCI for the exchange of module information. The integration of EWP processes and especially of the Learning Agreement is in scope as well.

The PIM brochure provides further information.

Why PIM?

What’s in it for HEIs?

  • digital procedure for the recognition of transfer credits
  • optional: the connection to own SIS, for an automatic data transfer
  • using PIM reduces the effort for developing internal, HEIs specific solutions
  • HEIs have sovereignty over the process and its outcomes
  • interoperability: the connection and interplay of several systems and digital applications (SIS, PIM, further international platforms)

What’s in it for students

  • central access to all recognition procedures
  • one-time storage of own data and documents
  • independent data administration and control over processes
  • immediate delivery of the documents  to the HEIs

Added-value, in general:

  • complete set of documents necessary for recognitions
  • common database of previous recognitions, for all HEIs connected to PIM
  • transparency of the processing status
  • digital credentials
  • reduction of processing time and effort

MVP 05/2021: digitalised recognition of transfer credits

The PIM project has started in May 2020. The goal of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), that will be accomplished by May 2021, is to enable the digital recognition of transfer credits.

Milestones

IT Architecture

Detailed IT architecture.

Use Cases

The MVP is broken down into the following Use Cases:

1.1 Steering the EMREX-Import

1.2 Recognition workflow

1.3 Import of recognition data in SIS

2.1 EMREX-Export from SIS

2.2 Data cockpit

3 Central module database

4 Recognition process and database of previous recognitions

5 Standard exports

6 eID usage

7 Data safe integration

Partner Higher Education Institutions

  • RWTH Aachen
  • TU Berlin
  • FH Bielefeld
  • TU Darmstadt
  • FH Dortmund
  • Uni Göttingen
  • PH Ludwigsburg
  • Uni Köln
  • TH Lübeck
  • TU München
  • Uni Potsdam

PIM and the Digitalisation

A successful implementation can only be reached by closely networking with further national and international partners.

National level

  • XHochschule – the common goal is the implementation of the OnlineZugangsGesetz (OZG) in the area of higher education
  • DAAD – connection through partner projects:
    • International Mobility and Cooperation Digital (IMKD)
    • myGuide
    • Digital Campus
  • SfH, Stiftung für Hochschulzulassung – Foundation for Academic Admissions
  • Bundesdruckerei BDR
  • Student Information System providers such as HISinOne, HIS-GX, CampusOnline, FlexNow, CampusNet
  • International Offices

International level

Presentations

Presentations about PIM, done with the occasion of various events, are accessible:

Glossary

  • EBSI – European Blockchain Services Infrastructure
  • EDCI – Europass Digital Credentials Infrastructure
  • eIDAS – Electronic Identification, Authentication and Trust Services
  • EMREX – network for data exchange
  • ELMO – data format in the EMREX-network
  • ESCI – European Student Card Initiative
  • EWP – Erasmus Without Paper
  • MVP – Minimum Viable Product
  • OLA – Online Learning Agreement
  • OZG – Onlinezugangsgesetz, Law for online access to administration services